


Colour Me Blue

by arrafrost



Category: Deadpool (Comics), Deadpool - All Media Types, Spider-Man - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, Alternate Universe - Teenagers, First Kiss, Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 21:01:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8342575
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arrafrost/pseuds/arrafrost
Summary: Wade never wants to leave his room despite Claire's many attempts to get him to socialize with the other kids, her one and only strategy that seems to work is the unexpected visit of Wade's idol.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sourirs (sourirpourmoi)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sourirpourmoi/gifts).



“Wilson,” nurse Claire knocked on the door even though it was open and she had stepped into the room. “There’s a visitor in the lounge who-”

“Tell Bob to go home, the poor kid needs to work on his homework.”

“It’s not Bob,” Claire grinned, leaning against the doorframe with her arms crossed over her chest.

“Then send Weasel away and tell him to get smaller glasses. I don’t need those things enhancing the radiation poisoning I’m already getting.”

Claire rose her brow, watching Wade until he finally sat up in his bed. “Come on.”

He didn’t do that. He never left his room and Claire knew that. She knew that he was perfectly fine here with his two visitors and his jokes as a defense mechanism. She knew a lot of things and she also knew not to pressure Wade into doing something he doesn’t want to do.

“You’ll like this, I promise.”

Wade finally looked up and caught her eyes. There was a mischief that matched his own on her face. He narrowed his eyes. “What are you playing at Temple?”

Claire shrugged her shoulders but she didn’t stop smirking. “You know I’m not going to tell you.” And she never did, not since the first month after Wade’s experimental treatment had left his body… different than what he’d checked in with. Claire stopped insisting that getting out and interacting with people was good for his mental health, that he needed to get fresh air and talk to people other than her and the other staff. She respected his wishes and understood his reasons for refusing to leave his room, even if she didn’t agree with him. “But this is different. This is something you want. You’ll regret it if you don’t come to the lounge.”

Wade stared at her suspiciously as she retreated back into the hallway with a challenge in her eyes. This was different than any other time she, or the other nurses, tried to bait Wade out of his room to socialize with the other sick kids on his floor. Claire looked at him and dared him to prove her wrong.

Wade loved a challenge.

Groaning, Wade threw the covers off his body and crawled out of bed. The first step to leaving his room was to build up his confidence. If Wade Wilson was good at anything, it was false bravado. That required a big sweater with a large hood. He had a big black one that he used to wear a lot in the beginning. Back when Weasel and Bob were still shocked by his appearance. In a way they still were, but like him, they became accustomed to the haunting visage.

The sweater smelled stale when he tugged it over his head, shrugging his arms into the sleeves. It needed to be washed again. But it was warm, it was big, and it served the purpose. He pulled the hood up as he passed by the bathroom and caught his reflection in the mirror. A fixture that he had requested on multiple occasions for them to remove and the hospital denied him every time.

Wade narrowed his eyes at himself from under the shade of his hood. He closed the door.

Even though he had barely visited the lounge after his experimental treatment decided to have some messed up side effects, he could easily navigate down the halls. Hands stuffed in his pocket, head ducked low, hood shielding him from prying eyes. Not that there were any eyes to pry.

Wade frowned as he started to peer into each room that he walked by. Empty. Not a single kid was still in their room. Everyone was in the lounge. Or dead. Or cured.

He hated this place that had become his only home. It was the only place he felt something akin to safe but when you didn’t feel safe in your own skin… it was hard to entrust that in a building. Especially a building that gave you this skin. More or less. Now the quiet matched how haunted this place was. The echo of his bunny slippers on the floor, the beeping from various machines in each and every room, the whispers of other people who were trapped like Wade but also free in a way he wasn’t. It was all amplified by the absence of young, sick kids. That was how it should sound all the time. Not a single sick kid to mask the sounds.

Wade had a facade ready when he reached the open doors of the lounge. He was going to cross his arms over his chest and lean against the doorframe, disinterested and only there because he wanted to throw Claire a bone, make her feel like she accomplished something with him. He was going to stand there and not give a shit, maybe leave after everyone noticed he was there and he became more of a spectacle than whatever was going on to attract the attention of all of kids.

That was his plan.

“No way…” The words tumbled off Wade’s lips the second he stepped up to the doorway. All the ‘cool’ Wade had prepared drifted away and he was left standing there in awe, probably gaping, at the single most coolest person to ever exist in the world.

Spider-Man.

He’s a lot shorter in person, wow that costume is tight, he’s probably smiling so wide under that mask right now, what a nice laugh, I wonder what color his eyes are.

Wade blinked and he caught Claire’s gaze. She winked and he tried his best to glare at her but he couldn’t. He was flabbergasted to the max, never in his life had he hit this level of flabbergastedness, it was off the charts.

Spidey was bouncing around the room, laughing with all the kids, making patterns with his webs, lifting the kids up with almost no effort because the boy had super strength. He was a hero. A real hero. Alive and in the same room as Wade Wilson. The kid that had newspaper clippings of Spider-Man in a book next to his bed. The kid that watched the news all the time for a glimpse of him.

His face was hidden behind a mask but he exuded happiness. It was all over him and it was infectious. Wade smiled and he wanted more than anything to let himself be drawn in. To cross the room and ask Spidey to make him something with those webs of his. To ask him how he made them, how he got his powers, if he could have his autograph.

Maybe Wade’s longing was too loud because Spider-Man chose that moment to look over and notice the new guest. He waved at him, excited and casual, like he was greeting an old friend.

No. This was wrong. Everything was wrong.

Wade’s blood ran cold. The force of the attention pushed him out of the room and rolled against the doorway to feel the wall of the hall on his back. The wall that stood between Spidey’s eyes and Wade’s face.

It didn’t matter that Spider-Man wore a mask. Wade would be able to see the disgust. The terror. The tension in his shoulders at being faced with someone as revolting as Wade Wilson. He could feel it down to his bones whenever someone looked at him like that. He could not bare that look from his hero.

Claire was right. He would have regretted not seeing Spider-Man. But he regretted letting Spidey see him.

He could hear the footsteps following him as he fled down the hall, back to the safety of his room. Claire would follow him, she would try to convince him to go back, tell him that heroes didn’t care about this kind of stuff and he wasn’t ever going to get another chance to shake Spider-Man’s hand and thank him for all that he did, all that he was.

It didn’t matter. Wade couldn’t face him.

“Hey dude, wait up!”

Wade froze.

Not Claire.

“Gosh you’re fast! Sorry if I scared you, the mask can do that to people, but I promise I’m just a normal guy under here. With some, not to normal enhancements, but totally human, not a threat at all.”

Wade groaned. He was an idiot. He didn’t turn around. “No you’re cool, Spidey. I’m just…” He waved his hand around his head, trying to come up with an excuse and went with the most obvious, believable and cliche one: “Nauseous… because of the cancer y’know.”

“Oh. Right. Sorry man, my bad. I… I’ll let you get going then but I’ll be in the lounge there if you want to come back, hang out for a bit. I’m making- or I’m gonna try to make web animals for everyone. The web dissolves after a few hours though so maybe it’s not the best idea.”

Wade smiled, shaking his head. “Sounds cool.”

“Thanks! What’s your favorite animal?”

“A unicorn.”

“A- cool.” Wade could hear the laugh that Spider-Man bit back, how polite. “Um, I should get back to everyone but you’ll come back right?”

“Yeah sure.”

“Cool!”

He listened to Spidey run back down the hall to the lounge and smiled to himself. Spider-Man sounded so young… like him. Turned out, his hero was a pretty nice guy, friendly and caring. Wade felt sick. He wasn’t going back.

.  
.

“Well hello,” Claire poked her head in later that evening, knocking once before leaning into his room.

Wade groaned and rolled over in his bed. He thought he was safe from her when she didn’t come to see him for hours after Spidey had been there but she must have been busy with work until then. He should have known he couldn’t escape her. Kind of hard when you’re stuck in one place all the time.

“Spider-Man missed you.”

“He had plenty of other sick kids to tend to. Didn’t want to overwhelm him.”

“The guy can lift a car over his head, I don’t think one more kid would have bothered him.”

“Whatever…”

He closed his eyes, pulling the covers up so he could pretend to sleep. It never worked on Claire though.

She sighed and Wade almost thought she was going to leave but she walked closer to the bed instead. “He wanted you to have this.”

He heard a small rustle next to the bed and then she was leaving. When the door clicked behind her, Wade rolled over quickly.

It wasn’t much, certainly not anatomically correct, but it was a unicorn made out of webs. It was already melting slightly, the hooves completely flat now and the tail longer than it should be. But Wade was beaming. Spidey had made it, just for him.

.  
.

“Knock knock!”

Wade startled at the new voice accompanying the soft rapping on the door. It sounded vaguely familiar but it wasn’t Weasel or Bob. Definitely wasn’t Claire unless she was doing some kind of impression.

“Um… who is it?”

The door opened a crack and Wade instinctively ducked under his covers. His hoodie was all the way across the room in the closet.

“Hey man, it’s Spidey. Oh sorry! Should I come back later?”

Confused out of his mind, Wade risked peeking over the blankets and sure enough The Spider-Man himself was standing in his doorway. Not entirely, half his body was still out in the hallway, too polite to properly intrude.

“Uh… no. That’s okay but-” Wade paused, unsure of how to proceed or explain himself. Though he couldn’t exactly sit under his blankets the whole time Actual Spider-Man was visiting him. “Can you grab my hoodie from the closet? The red one?”

Spider-man perked up at that. He looked almost gleeful to be invited in and to have something to do. It didn’t take him long to locate the sweater and he even glanced away as Wade reached out to take it.

“I talked to that nurse… Claire. Real nice lady.”

Wade smirked as he tugged on his hoodie. Real nice lady was right. Him saying that made him sound younger than Wade initially thought.

“She let me know that you’re not… or rather… you… prefer your privacy?”

That made Wade wince, tugging his hood over his face even more. True he didn’t like showing off his skin. Didn’t mean he necessarily wanted everyone to know that. Thanks Claire.

“I mean, I get the privacy thing. For different reasons, obviously. There’s no way I could understand - not that there’s anything wrong but… I get it.”

It was almost charming how awkward Spider-Man was, definitely younger than Wade thought. Probably around his age…

“So I made you this.” Spider-Man reached into the book bag on his shoulder and handed Wade a red and black mask. A mask that resembled Spidey’s quite well but had its own character… clearly original.

“Just a concept I was working on. I heard from Claire that you’re a big fan and gotta say man I’m flattered.”

Wade turned the fabric over in his hands. It was quality stuff. The same kind of material Spider-Man made his suit out of from the looks of it. More black than white on the eyes, no webs, looser fabric on the top.

“Didn’t want it to strangle you, if it was too tight.” Spidey explained and Wade smiled. “Do you like it?”

Wade’s response was to open up the bottom of the mask and slip it on over his head, knocking his hood back in the process. It fit perfectly.

Too excited to contain himself, Wade launched out of bed and into the bathroom. It had been a long time since he looked into the mirror and felt happiness.

Wade turned back to Spidey, still standing next to the bed but watching Wade through the open door. His voice was genuine when he spoke. “Thank you.”

Spidey shrugged, scratching the back of his head. “Hey man, no problem.”

.  
.

Wade wore the mask for the next week straight. Bob and Weasel had visited and thought it was both weird and cool - even cooler when they heard who made it for him.

“What if the spider man has a crush on you?” Weasel proposed, sitting on the end of the bed, dealing the cards between himself, Wade who sat under the covers on his pillows, and Bob who was sitting in the chair next to the bed.

“A crush! On Mr. Wilson?”

“Relax Bob, no one can have a bigger crush than you,” Weasel winked and Bob gawked, nearly flailing out of his chair with the effort he put into denying his feelings. Whether or not his devotion was a crush didn’t entirely matter, Wade wasn’t interested. He wasn’t interested in anyone, and no one was interested in him.

“What say you Wade? In your spiffy new face that is much easier to look at. Serious improvement my friend.”

Wade kicked him under the blankets and Weasel faked almost falling off the bed.

“You know I love your hamburger face, man.” Weasel stuck out his fist and Wade bumped knuckles with him, feeling incredibly cliche but connected to his friend. The only two friends that stuck around.

Weasel looked at his cards as Wade and Bob stared at theirs. “I’m betting ten bucks.”

They didn’t play for money. Weasel knew that. Bob and Wade turned their attention to him.

“Ten bucks that the spider is into the… what are you Wade?”

“A cancer patient.”

“Blunt,” Weasel nodded, worrying his lower lip between his teeth. “Spider is into that chemo… nah, sounds like he’s only into you because you’re hashtag tragic. Spider is into the sass, that’s it. That mouth on you won him over.”

“Barely spoke any words to him Weas…” Wade muttered because it was true. He may have a false bravado that could fool most people but he was an awkward mess around Spider-Man. The guy was his idol and he made him a mask. What the hell kind of confidence could he have around that?

“Spider had you speechless? Wow. Wade without a mouth, I’d pay money to see that.”

“Sounds like an awful film.”

“I’d watch it.”

“That’s because you’d watch paint dry, Bob.”

Bob pouted but didn’t say anything.

“But what if he does Wade,” Weasel pressed, leaning forward on the bed. “What if he has a legit crush on you?”

Wade pondered the idea. His face flushed at the images of him and Spidey, laughing and joking, holding each other, falling asleep on the red and blue web designed costume in his hospital bed. Wade frowned. “Then I’d break his heart.”

.

.

Spidey came to visit two days after Wade kicked Bob and Weasel’s ass at poker… for exactly one round before Weasel took over and cleaned the floor with them. The guy was the best at cards, at most things really, too smart for his own good and definitely too smart to still be friends with the likes of Wade and Bob. Yet there he was, every week.

Wade jumped, waking up in a panic at the sound of knocking on the glass. He patted the pillow next to him until he found his mask and pulled it on as he got out and cautiously made his way to the window. The window that was four stories high.

When he pulled back the curtains, Spidey was stuck to the window, waving at him with what he presumed was a smile under that mask.

Wade opened the window.

“Hey Wade! How’s it going?”

“Um… good? Why are you outside my window?” Wade did not ask if he was in a John Hughes movie. As much as Weasel would have loved that.

“Was swinging by, thought I’d say hi.”

Wade stepped back from the window and gestured for Spidey to come in, which he did. The guy was rather agile, as expected from the webslinger. He reached into his bag once he was upright on his feet. “You like card games?”

He smirked and then nodded when he realized Spidey wouldn’t be able to see his face.

.

.

“You’re a cheater, Wilson!”

“Am not, you’re just awful at poker.”

“I am super skilled at poker!”

“Like you’re super skilled at Go Fish?”

“You totally looked at my cards while I was in the bathroom!”

“You only wish that were true so you can have some of your dignity back from losing at Go Fish.”

“People lose at Go Fish all the time!”

“When they’re five!”

“You don’t know how old I am!”

Wade laughed loudly, “You’ve definitely got the attitude right!”

Spidey punched him gently, more like a light touch because Spidey was so much stronger than a regular person and Wade was so much weaker.

Wade fell back, laughing and breathing heavy. He was getting light headed. “Such a sore loser. Good thing we didn’t bet any money or you’d be throwing a full blown tantrum in my room.”

“I would not be…” Spidey muttered, like a petulant child who was on the brink of a time out.

“Either way, I win! No cheating necessary!”

“Next round I’ll win.”

“Sure you will…” Wade sighed, rolling on his bed so he was laying across the width of the bed, propping his head up with his elbow to look at Spidey properly. “Same time tomorrow?”

Spidey took the hint immediately and nodded, “Tomorrow.”

.

.

They were laying on Wade’s bed when Claire knocked on the door. It had been hours since Spidey arrived and they had talked about everything and nothing. Spidey was in high school, he was smart, he loved his classes but hated his school and he couldn’t wait for university even though affording it would be tough. He loved photography and was making some money off that. He wanted to be a part of the Avengers so badly it hurt because he would be so cool and he could know Tony Stark and the rest of the Avengers and he would have a much better income… so he hoped. But he was also afraid of joining the Avengers if they ever asked because superhero work already took so much out of him and he got hurt all the time. He’d lost people he loved. Wade understood.

Wade lost everything. He had nothing. No family, no school, no hopes or dreams. It was only this hospital room, the next treatment, Bob and Weasel, Claire… and now Spidey. He had something…

“Hey kids,” Claire greeted, a warm smile on her face but business in her eyes. It was time for Spidey to leave.

Spidey understood immediately and gave her a two finger salute before rolling off the bed. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Wade.”

Wade smiled under his mask, glad it covered he blush on his cheeks and the fondness in his eyes. “Sounds good, Spidey.”

Once Spidey was out of the window and back to his own world, Claire walked over to Wade’s bed. She didn’t sit. She never sat.

“New friend working out for you?”

Wade nodded, surprisingly open. “Yeah… I really like him, Claire.”

She smiled, genuinely happy that Wade was opening up because that’s all she ever wanted for him. “That’s good.”

He frowned. “Is it?”

.

.

Nothing felt right to Wade when Spidey was gone. It was all a lie. A reality that couldn’t exist or be sustained. But every time Spidey crawled in through his window… reality went straight out, tossed aside for in depth conversations about Inception and Godfather Part II. About how Spidey was doing on tests and how he was keeping his cover by letting the bullies think they were stronger than him… to a certain degree. He always stood up for anyone else that was getting their attention, even before he got his superpowers.

Everything was going great until Spidey made things more complicated than they needed to be.

“Look Spidey, the fact is… Hawkeye is the most underrated superhero-”

“Peter.”

“No man his name is Clint.”

“My name is Peter, not Spidey. Although you can call me that. But that’s my name.”

“That’s not… you didn’t need to… we were fine the way we were… weren’t we?”

Even behind his mask, Wade could tell Peter was giving him the most perplexed look. “We were? Of course we were but I… I wanted to tell you who I was because I trust you.”

“Whisper in a dead man’s ear…” Wade muttered but Peter leaned forward over the bed, messing up the already forgotten cards between them.

“No, Wade. That is not what I’m doing. I trust you because you’re you. Because you’re my friend. Because I like… spending time with you. I know I can trust you and I wanted to tell you that.”

Wade was still frowning under his own mask and he knew Peter could tell. He hated this. It made things worse. More personal meant more baggage meant more people to suffer when he wasn’t there. Weasel would be fine and Weasel would take care of Bob. Who was going to take care of Spidey?

“You can’t… You don’t know me.”

“We’ve talked about irregular pooping, I think I know you pretty well, Wade.”

“You know a different side of me.”

“Wade-”

“No, Spidey. This mask… I’m not this person anymore. I’m not overconfident and funny, I’m depressed and self-conscious. I hate that you think you know me when you’re always staring at this stupid mask!” Wade winced instantly. “It’s not stupid… I’m glad you made it for me… but this isn’t who I am anymore. Being around you makes me feel like who I was before all this… fucking tragedy. But that’s not who I am anymore and I’m never going to be that person again.”

“You were that person with me. You are that person.”

“I’m a corpse waiting to happen.”

“You… you’re not.”

“Don’t kid yourself, Peter.” Wade spat out his real name, feeling it on his tongue for the first time and wishing it were happier. “I’m not gonna last and neither is this.”

“It could. It could last and you could make it through this.”

“Through what? Hell? This sick fucking form of torture that never stops? The chemo doesn’t help, Peter! It doesn’t change things! My skin is fucked, my cells are fucked, I’m fucked. End of fucking story!”

Spidey inhaled sharply, leaning back and sitting up straight as he processed everything. Wade was already out of breath. He hated how quickly he lost the air from his lungs. This was why Claire wanted him to take stupid yoga lessons. Why she thought meditation might do him good.

When Peter finally looked up from his lap, Wade felt like his eyes were boring into him. It was intense. Though not quite as intense as Peter pulling his Spider-Man mask off his head.

Wade’s eyes widened, hands reaching out instinctively to pull the mask back down but Peter’s face was already imprinted in his mind. The boyish face, soft and cute and nerdy, the hair sticking up in all the wrong places thanks to the mask holding it down, the eyes that were staring straight back into his. Wade wanted to cry.

“I trust you.” Peter repeated, leaving no room for Wade to argue.

He didn’t. He sat there silently, taking in every bit of Peter’s face. Memorizing it just in case he never saw it again.

Peter blinked, his eyes a little more hesitant than they once were. “I… like you.”

Wade swallowed the lump that had been building up in his throat. “You can’t.”

“But I do…”

Wade didn’t move as Peter shuffled forward on the bed, bending some of the cards under his knees until he was sitting right in front of Wade. He put his hands on Wade’s arms and looked him right in the eyes. There was a question there and Wade didn’t know the answer.

He had an idea, but he didn’t want to write it down in case it was completely wrong.

“Can I kiss you?”

Wade scored a hundred percent. But he didn’t know if he could turn in the paper.

Peter’s hands moved up to his face, resting against his cheeks but making no move to remove the mask. Wade wasn’t entirely sure why he did it, but he reached up and rolled the mask up to his nose. Just enough that his lips were exposed and Peter didn’t hesitate to move forward with the invitation.

Wade didn’t think it was possible to have his first kiss in a hospital while his skin looked like anything but skin and his confidence had been withered down to nothing. But here he was, lips locked with Spider-Man, the vigilante both loved and hated in this city.

He was a good kisser. It took a couple more kisses for Wade to really figure it out but when the kiss deepened from innocent pecks to Peter’s tongue in his mouth, Wade knew. Peter was the best kisser and Wade wanted to keep kissing him forever.

Which was why he was even more surprised than Peter when he pushed him back, breaking the kiss.

“Wade?”

“I… I don’t want to hurt you.”

Peter smiled, a sad smile, but one that still had some hope left in it. “I’ve been hurt before.”

“But-”

Peter placed his finger on Wade’s lips, “You’re worth the risk.”

“You barely know me…”

“I’ve got time.”

“Between school and photos and saving people’s lives?”

“Gotta have some me-time don’t I?”

Wade breathed in deep, swallowing down all his insecurities as he reached up and pulled his mask off all the way. Peter was looking at him in surprise but there was a certain amount of fondness in his eyes that made Wade’s heart skip a beat. “I hope you know this is all going straight to my ego.”

“Oh, I think I’d like you with an ego.”

“You already like me,” Wade grinned, tentative but his confidence was growing already with the way Peter was looking at him and not looking away.

“You got me.”

Wade felt his heartbeat falter. Did he really?

“You’ve got one hour, Spidey.” Both of the boys jumped significantly high on the bed as Claire startled them from the doorway. She had only cracked the door open a little and she wasn’t looking directly at them, for secret identity purposes Wade assumed - or rather hoped.

Peter ducked his head, hiding his face in Wade’s neck, “You got it, Claire!”

Wade caught her eyes and she smiled at him, knowing and bright. Wade smiled back.

“We’ve got two hours,” Wade grinned when Claire slipped out and closed the door behind her.

“Claire said one-”

“Yeah but Claire loves me. She’ll let it slide.”

“I dunno if I wanna face her wrath…” Peter said but he was already kissing Wade’s neck in such a tender way that Wade knew he already won.

“She’s all bark and no bite… except she is legitimately scary… “

“One hour and I’m gone,” Peter whispered against Wade’s lips, making him shiver. “But I’m gonna keep kissing you if that’s okay.”

Wade grinned as he pressed his lips against Peter’s. It was more than okay.


End file.
